


things fall apart

by auficial



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Basically, Gen, Tsukishima the high and mighty, falls off his high horse, he becomes one of them
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-13
Updated: 2014-08-13
Packaged: 2018-02-13 00:15:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,367
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2129817
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/auficial/pseuds/auficial
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Tsukishima Kei contemplates his descend into a volleyball idiot. In other words, Tsukishima has a drama queen moment before realizing he is cool with that.</p>
<p></p><blockquote>
  <p><br/>He literally stopped walking when he had that epiphany.</p>
  <p>'<i>Oh, no,</i>' Tsukishima despaired, '<i>I'm becoming one of them. This can't be happening.</i>'<br/></p>
</blockquote>
            </blockquote>





	things fall apart

Tsukishima Kei isn't quite sure how he had gotten into this situation. In fact, he had been wondering about it for quite a while now and he still couldn't decide on the starting point of his downward spiral. The fight was between joining the volleyball club in high school and being involved in volleyball at all. As he looked over to the two idiots racing to the club room, he was sure that everyone else existed to annoy him. "Tsuki, let's go to club," Yamaguchi called and Tsukishima grimaced.

"I know, you don't have to remind me," he grumbled.

"Sorry, Tsuki," Yamaguchi smiled guilelessly.

As he listened to Yamaguchi chatter on, he found that his high school life had begun to revolve around volleyball. Sure, he had class activities and he studied. However, slowly and unknowingly, he began thinking about blocking techniques during his free time and when he spaced out, he thought about the mistakes he made in the previous matches. Needless to say, it was creeping him out. The pair entered the gym and found the enthusiastic idiots already spiking balls. Tsukishima shuddered at the thought that he was becoming like them.

' _No, no,_ ' he assured himself, ' _I will never get to their level. They're another level entirely._ '

Relieved by his thoughts, he turned to pick up a ball and found Sugawara Koushi smiling at him. "Tsukishima, you've gotten really good at blocking recently."

"Ah, thank you," he replied, "it's nothing."

"That's true," Sawamura Daichi agreed, "you're usually kind of dead but it's nice to see you're a little alive now."

".....Thank you," Tsukishima mumbled, knowing well that he shouldn't piss off the captain or the vice captain. It wasn't the hierarchy he was afraid of but Sawamura wasn't someone you should offend if you valued your life and if you didn't want to be the centre of attacks from everyone else, you don't go after someone like Sugawara. Despite himself, Tsukishima had grudging respect for Sawamura for being able to keep everyone in line and Sugawara triggered something akin to admiration in him for being able to gain the favour of almost anyone he met.

Tsukishima shuddered again, this time at the thought of being the fan boy of the third years the way Tanaka Ryuunosuke was.

Speaking of the loud mouthed, bald idiot, he was currently getting ignored by Shimizu Kiyoko together with Nishinoya Yuu. The new manager was behind her, following her like a little chick. Tsukishima glanced briefly at Yamaguchi and found a slight blush on his cheeks. "You really-" he started but was distracted by Tanaka's sudden loud shout and looked over to see him and Nishinoya shouting randomly. Azumane Asahi was trying to calm the two of them down but the two were obviously overexcited and noisy as usual. They kept up the racket until Sawamura yelled, "Stop it!". He and Yamaguchi sniggered at them. Ukai Keishin entered and they started practice.

For the next few hours, all Tsukishima could think of was volleyball.

Of course, he didn't forget to take a jab at Kageyama Tobio as per usual, "Great tosses, as usual, ou-sama~". The look of annoyance on Kageyama's face convinced him that he was still above these volleyball mad idiots. The feeling came back all the stronger when Hinata Shoyo got really exploded when Tsukishima threw the water bottle at his forehead with a, "Sorry, sorry, I forgot you were so short~". That had gotten Sawamura's hand on his shoulder but it was really worth it to see the little shrimp get so worked up. It was really funny that the shrimp got so worked up over the mention of height, as always. So much that he didn't even see that the only reason why Tsukishima attacked his height was that it was possibly the only thing he could use to get to Hinata.

Tsukishima would never, ever admit it to anyone and if someone were to suspect it, he would deny it with every fibre of his being. Yet the truth was that he actually admired that little shrimp. He was kind of amazing, after all.

"Good training," Ukai dismissed them. (The teacher advisor spoke a lot and so did the coach but typically, he would end with "Good training", so Tsukishima trained himself to zone out until he heard that. If there was anything important at all, Yamaguchi would tell him about it later.) He and Yamaguchi took his time to clean the floors unlike the two idiots running around like headless chickens. Soon enough, they locked the gym behind them and started towards the foothill store. "Daichi-san is buying us pork buns again!" Hinata exclaimed excitedly.

"Geez, Daichi, are you made of money?" Sugawara complained.

"It's fine, it's fine. After all, it's our last year here," Sawamura laughed it off.

"Noooooooo, don't say things like that, Daichi-san!" Tanaka sniffled.

"Ryuu! People graduate! This is not a manga!" Nishinoya let out a loud guffaw, "But I'll sure miss our cowardly ace!"

"Ehhhh, is that how I'm going to be remembered?" Azumane whined.

"We're definitely going to nationals," Kageyama huffed.

"Is winning the only thing you can say?" Hinata eyed Kageyama, who grabbed Hinata's head, ignoring his "I'm sorry, I was wrong, Kageyama-sama!"

Yamaguchi and him typically lingered at the back of the group, just walking on in silence. Originally, he declined their offers to walk together, disappearing the moment training ended. He wasn't quite sure when he started walking together with them and when he started eating the pork buns Sawamura bought regularly. Somehow, somewhere, it became routine to him to follow a group in black jackets. After that, he realized that he no longer saw it as him following them but he began to think himself part of the group. He literally stopped walking when he had that epiphany.

' _Oh, no,_ ' Tsukishima despaired, ' _I'm becoming one of them. This can't be happening._ '

All of a sudden, Akaashi Keiji's warning rang clear in his head.

It was way back during the training camp when he was stuck between the two captains. Somehow, it became a common occurrence for him to be stuck as a blocker with them. In fact, he told himself that he would only do it for half an hour but before he knew it, two hours had already passed. He went to the side to take a break and have some water while the other two were still fooling around, taking turns to do serves. At that time, Akaashi came over and gave him a long look.

"What?" Tsukishima grumbled, "are you going to criticise my blocking too?"

"No, not at all," Akaashi looked thoughtful, "...It's just that I wanted to tell you once you start sinking, you will never find your way up again."

"Hah?" Tsukishima frowned, "it's not like we're doing swimming."

Akaashi gave him a blank look. "Never mind."

After that, Tsukishima had completely forgotten about it until that very moment when he finally realized what Akaashi meant. ' _Does that mean I'm going to become a volleyball idiot too?_ ' he groaned inwardly, resisting the urge to collapse onto his knees, ' _NO! I don't want that!_ "

Suddenly, a pork bun appeared in his vision.

"Tsuki! You're kind of quiet today."

He accepted the bun, grumbling, "Nothing, I'm just thinking."

"Ooh, going for that mysterious vibe? I hear girls really dig that!"

"Stop that, idiot."

"Sorry, Tsuki!"

Then, he smiled a little. Whatever happens, he was going to remain 'Tsuki'. Who cares if he's already sinking? Who cares if he already started his downward spiral? Perhaps it was really inevitable after all, with a team full of volleyball loving idiots. As he looked at the two idiots fighting, Sawamura and Sugawara chiding Azumane, Tanaka patting him on the back,  Nishinoya laughing beside them and finally, to Yamaguchi just eating by his side, he found that he liked it. He liked being there, amongst them, biting on a pork bun. It's okay not to think too much about it and if he really became a volleyball idiot, he'll think about it then.... and probably apologize to his brother.

Besides, he's sure his test grades will never go to Kageyama and Hinata's level.

**Author's Note:**

> 1\. Written because I absolutely adore Haikyuu!! and this was the first fic idea I ever had- Tsukishima judging all of them and going, "Ew, what's wrong with you". 
> 
> 2\. Shout out to:   
> The original manga series because it's really that good and I can't get enough of their antics. 
> 
> 3\. Tsukishima harbours a not so secret horror of ever becoming like Hinata or Kageyama. 
> 
> 4\. Also, the boy definitely knows how to pick his battles because his main targets are always Hinata and Kageyama who are too big of idiots to pose a threat to him. 
> 
> 5\. I was initially hesitant to write Haikyuu!! fics because I feel like they work better in the manga and as fancomics because I can definitely imagine the part where they go buy pork buns as a manga strip! (Too bad I'm no good at drawing.) 
> 
> 6\. You know what they say, Tsukishima, if you can't beat them, join them! 
> 
> 7\. Akaashi's advice on sinking is dedicated to Wild Adapter Volume 6, I think, which was a volume that I greatly enjoyed. (But then again, I enjoyed the whole Wild Adapter series thus far.) 
> 
> 8\. I took an extremely, extremely, extremely long time to warm up to Tsukishima. (In the past, I wanted to squash him like a bug.) 
> 
> 9\. Tsukishima probably had a nightmare that he became Kageyama or Hinata and no one took him seriously or something. (Probably.) 
> 
> 10\. The title "things fall apart" is not a reference to Chinua Achebe or Yeats but merely an expression that things cannot stay the same forever and in Tsukishima's case, it's falling apart to something better. (The working title on my draft of this fic is "they're all weirdoes" but let me have my false air of sophistication, hahaha.)


End file.
